Turning on the Engine

Ewelina Daniel is Policy Officer in European Commission, Directorate General (DG) Climate Action working on development of pilot auctions scheme for renewable hydrogen under the Innovation Fund. She also coordinates the Innovation Fund large-scale calls for proposals and works on the use of Innovation Fund for financial instruments. Previously she was team leader in DG Energy on energy system modelling for setting the 2030 energy and climate targets and she also worked in DG Internal Market on regulatory standards for vehicles. She has master degrees in political science and in economics.

In January 2019, Wayne-Daniel Kern co-founded the SOFC program as Vice President and holds the commercial responsibility within the project. In addition to his work at Bosch, Wayne-Daniel Kern has been a member of the Board of Directors and Treasurer at Hydrogen Europe since June 2022.

Ruud Kempener is a member of cabinet for the European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson, where he is responsible for hydrogen, biogas, CCS and the energy-intensive industries. Ruud joined the Commission in 2016, where he has been responsible for EU hydrogen policies, renewables financing, and international cooperation activities on renewables.

Pierre Vial studied industrial engineering at the Technical University Mittelhessen and holds a Master degree in Business Administration and Engineering. After graduating, he started as a trainee in product management and subsequently became the responsible product manager for fuel cells. Since 2020 he is Product Owner SOFC Fuel Cells and Hydrogen and since 2022 he is also responsible as Product Owner for PEM Fuel Cells.

Markus Kaufmann is a Principal in Roland Berger's Hamburg Office. For the past 10 years, he has been working on clen hydrogen as part of Roland Berger's growing cross-functional expert team in the field. He advises clients from the public and private sector around the world on strategic projects along the entire hydrogen value chain, with a particular focus on developing integrated clean hydrogen investment projects, supporting the entry of new players into the market and advancing the industrialization of critical supply chains such as electrolyzers. Markus has co-published numerous studies on hydrogen and fuel cells; his academic background is in business administration (University of Mannheim) and international affairs (Sciences Po Paris).

Bart Biebuyck is since May 2016 the Executive Director of the Clean Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (Clean Hydrogen JU), a public-private partnership aiming at facilitating the deployment of fuel cells and hydrogen technologies in Europe. Under his leadership, a strong emphasis on cooperation with cities and regions led to the creation of the Hydrogen Valleys concept and the formation of the European Hydrogen Valleys partnership. Dissemination of project results and building technology awareness among the European citizens became an important priority. As an engineer he understands the importance of basic research and is a key focusing point on the call preparations. Before, Bart Biebuyck was at the Powertrain Division of Toyota Motor Europe where he held various management positions. His expertise in the automotive industry includes extensive knowledge related to the deployment of new technologies such as hydrogen and fuel cells in the European market. Bart was responsible for the European trials of the Toyota Fuel Cell Vehicle, which were conducted partly in the German Clean Energy Partnership (CEP) program. He also had the opportunity to develop and expand his expertise in Japan, where he lived and worked for two years. In addition to his industrial experience, Bart has been politically active in his local town since 2006. In 2013 he became the vice president of the City Council, responsible, among others, for the local economy and education. Bart's term as the Executive Director of the Clean Hydrogen Joint Undertaking was extended for four years until May 2023. Bart studied Automotive engineering at the HTS Autotechnieken in Arnhem, The Netherlands.